Bands/Artists with brilliant b-sides

Temaz

So I'll start with my favorite ones.

Oasis for me have the best, classic gems that only seem to be known by fans who collect the singles.

D'yer Wanna Be A Spaceman
Full On
Let's All Make Believe
One Way Road
Shout It Out Loud
Headshrinker
Stay Young
Going Nowhere

All those songs would grace other bands albums!

My second pick would have to be The Verve

Country Song
So Sister
Three Steps

Again the list could go on and on!

So, what Artists/Bands that you like have fantastic B-sides.....................

DEFTLEFTHAND

Be Here Now and Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants would have been far better albums if they had included the B sides you've mentioned.

Angel Child is another great one.

nlgbbbblth

More Oasis

Take Me Away
Cloudburst
Listen Up
Fade Away
Half The World Away
Acquiesce
Talk Tonight
Rockin' Chair
Step Out
The Masterplan

Rothko

Radiohead:
Pearly
Palto Alto
How I Made My Millions
Polyethelene (Parts 1 & 2)
Cuttooth
Talk Show Host
Gagging Order
Indian Rubber
The Trickster
Lewis (Mistreated)

Stone Roses:
All Across The Sands
Standing Here
Going Down
Where Angels Play
Something's Burning
Mersey Paradise
Groove Harder

Pixies:
Into The White
Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Evil Hearted You
Weird At My School
Winterlong
In Heaven

Elliott Smith:
No Confidence Man
I Don't Think I'm Ever Gonna Figure It Out
A Living Will
True Love
Angel In The Snow
Abused
Some Song
Brand New

delbertgrady

Teenage Fanclub
My personal favourite is probably B-Side (come on, even the title is awesome) from the What You Do To Me CD single. However, most of the singles from Thirteen, Grand Prix and Songs from Northern Britain had absolutely killer b-sides. A lot of cover versions (Buffalo Springfield, Creedence, The Rutles) and some brilliant original material.
Highlights: Burned, He'd Be A Diamond, Kickabout, Genius Envy, Golden Glades.

Smashing Pumpkins
The Mellon Collie era, which were all gathered up (with extra tracks) for The Aeroplane Flies High box set. Bullet With Butterfly Wings had covers of Blondie and The Cure, among others. Tonight, Tonight had a batch of predominantly acoustic songs. Very eclectic, and songs I still listen to, even more than the actual albums.
Highlights: A Night Like This, Dreaming, The Aeroplane Flies High, Set the Ray to Jerry.

R.E.M.
Wall of Death (Richard Thompson cover, also included on the Beat the Retreat Richard Thompson tribute album), It's A Free World, Baby (inexplicably pulled from Out of Time at the eleventh hour, much to Peter Buck's chagrin), and - for novelty value - Love Is All Around, The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Embrace
Most of their early singles had superb b-sides (better than most of the songs on their second album, to be honest - they should have held them back):
Feelings I Thought You Shared, Don't Turn Your Back on Love, Love Is Back.

Placebo
They recorded some great cover versions as b-sides. Later collected on a bonus disc released with initial versions of Sleeping With Ghosts, reissued later still as an individual release on iTunes.
Where Is My Mind (This Picture)
Johnny and Mary (Taste In Men)
20th Century Boy (You Don't Care About Us)
Daddy Cool (The Bitter End)

Kate Bush
The Empty Bullring (b-side of Breathing)
Under the Ivy (b-side of Running Up That Hill: easily one of her best songs, inexplicably not included on Hounds of Love)
Sexual Healing (b-side of King of the Mountain)

The Beatles
Rain (b-side of Paperback Writer: generally regarded as one of the best b-sides of all time)
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) (b-side of Let It Be) (one of Macca's favourite Beatle tracks)

Pink Floyd
Non-album tracks are few and far between, but two are worth mentioning:
Candy and a Currant Bun (b-side of Arnold Layne)
Careful With That Axe, Eugene (b-side of Point Me at the Sky, later made available on Relics)

Queen
Queen singles tended to just have album tracks as b-sides, so there are only a handful of bona fide non-album tracks that appeared on singles. Of these, most are fairly disposable, but the following are worth a listen:
I Go Crazy (b-side of Radio Ga Ga: probably their best b-side, though everyone in the band apart from Brian May hated it)
A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling (b-side of A Kind of Magic - effectively an instrumental of Don't Lose Your Head from the Kind of Magic album, but a better track in my opinion)
My Life Has Been Saved (b-side of Scandal, and better than the inferior version they rerecorded for the Made In Heaven album)

mosstin

Suas11 wrote: »

Radiohead:
Pearly
Palto Alto
How I Made My Millions
Polyethelene (Parts 1 & 2)
Cuttooth
Talk Show Host
Gagging Order
Indian Rubber
The Trickster
Lewis (Mistreated)

Stone Roses:
All Across The Sands
Standing Here
Going Down
Where Angels Play
Something's Burning
Mersey Paradise
Groove Harder

Pixies:
Into The White
Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Evil Hearted You
Weird At My School
Winterlong
In Heaven

Elliott Smith:
No Confidence Man
I Don't Think I'm Ever Gonna Figure It Out
A Living Will
True Love
Angel In The Snow
Abused
Some Song
Brand New

Other than Something's Burning which would have fitted well on Second Coming I think all of those tracks you've mentioned epitomise what B-sides are - pretty but unsubstantial.

nlgbbbblth

The Smiths
Handsome Devil
Jeane
Wonderful Woman
Accept Yourself
Back To The Old House
Girl Afraid
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
How Soon Is Now?
Stretch Out And Wait
Rubber Ring
Asleep
London
Half A Person
Sweet And Tender Hooligan

BOSTIK

“How Soon is Now” was later released as an A-side, actually making the UK Top 30 & The Irish Top 5 in 1985. I have the original 7” single somewhere, thought it was brilliant and unlike anything else I’d heard at the time.

U2 have some savage B-sides as well such as:

Salomé
Lady with the Spinning Head
Love Comes Tumbling
Summer Rain
Spanish Eyes

Depeche Mode have some excellent ones too:

Happiest Girl
Dangerous
Sea of Sin
Oh Well
Ice Machine
Shout
My Joy

nlgbbbblth

How Soon Is Now? was also number one in Dave Fannings' Fab 50 1984.

It was released as a single in its own right during February 1985.

Hannibal

Oasis have probably the best output of B=sides that I'm aware of and for a period from 1997 until 2002 their most inspried stuff was B-sides and they have aged better than the three albums.

Robin Hood by Ocean Colour Scene is a top notch B-side aswell

Pighead

Suede's B-sides were always worth waiting for. As a kid I'd always get excited when they released a new single as I knew the b-sides would be deadly. They eventually put the majority of their b-sides onto a double album called Sci-Fi Lullabies. Disc 1 in particular is a work of art. For any casual suede fans who haven't heard many of their b-sides, you should really get this album.

nlgbbbblth

Dunno why they left off Painted People and a couple of others.